kaulonline

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Dr. Shah Faesal from Kupwara tops Indian Civil Service Exam

    Got this news from Twitter. @FreeKashmir reported that Dr. Shah Faesal from Kashmir topped the IAS, and was complaining that “the news didn’t make it to the Indian media”. It would indeed have been surprising and disgusting if Indian media had ignored this, so I immediately googled the topic, and there it was — on…

  • Faisal Shahzad – Another Pakistan Connection

    Whenever a new terrorist plot unravels in the US in these times, it does not take too much to bet that it will have a Pakistani connection. In India, the phrase “Pakistani connection” has had to be so much overused, that it has become almost a joke and acquired the same meaning as “crying wolf”.…

  • Hardest to Enter American Universities

    Huffington Post (huffingtonpost.com) has just released the “list of hardest schools to get into“, which is American English for “list of American colleges or universities with the lowest ratio of number of admitted students to number of applicants”. Here are top three from the list: 1. Harvard University: 2,110 accepted out of 30,489 applicants (6.9%)…

  • Air Travails 2: Do I Need a Transit Visa in UK

    As I was shopping online for airfares from Washington area to Delhi on Oct-2, I came across this incredible price of $569 return fare on British Airways (via Travelocity). Normally any price below a thousand bucks is considered a deal. So, as I was drooling over that price (the site said only 3 seats were…

  • Verb "Googled" Not in Google's Spellchecker

    It has been several years since the verb “to google” was added to the English dictionary. According to Wikipedia, It was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary on June 15, 2006, and to the eleventh edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary in July 2006. However, Gmail’s own spellchecker shows the word “googled” as a…

  • Air Travails 1: Eccentricities of Air Tickets

    Past one week has been kind of a roller coaster ride for me. It started with a travel plan and ended with no travel at all, with a number of lessons learned along the way. News of a family member’s death in India came on last Friday night. Within minutes I was online looking for…

  • Kashmir's War with Plastic Bags

    While reading the e-paper edition of Greater Kashmir (a daily newspaper published from Srinagar, Kashmir) today, I saw an interesting front page advertizement from Srinagar Municipal Corporation.

  • PA Gym Killer George Sodini was a Blogger

    There is not a lot of detail out yet about who George Sodini, who killed 3 people in a Pittsburgh area Gym yesterday. But what is known is that he kept a blog, and already had his date of death written there. Apparently, the killer’s blog site has crashed due to all the attention, but…

  • Another Armed Maniac Strikes

    This story is still unfolding. Looks like another armed maniac has struck and killed a number of people. According to this news item in New York Post, at least 4 people have been killed by a man in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania (outside Pittsburgh) in an LA Fitness Center. The man reportedly entered a busy gym carrying…

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